up the steps

I'm not one to always check my forwards, but I have gotten some really great jokes, video clips and thoughts to ponder from them. My friends are much better than I at finding these things, so I'm grateful to receive their funnies and gems of wisdom. This morning there was a video clip in my e-mail from a friend, that while it WAS funny because it was so true, I had to admit I saw myself in it. The clip was of two government employees riding an escalator and it stops in the middle of their ascent. So they stand there on the escalator screaming for help. Of course, we watch and titter, knowing how easily they could simply walk up the steps and be on their way, but that implies that they can solve a problem on their own and move on under their own independent steam.

So often in life I get stuck, and not because I don't have the tools to get myself free. I just don't believe I can. I've always had a more half empty than half full mentality, and believe it or not I got a response to a comment I wrote on another forward this same morning reminding me that it is so often what we think about ourselves and believe we can do that determines what we actually do. Another person I know told me the same thing last week, and yet another reminded me I'm in a position of strength being beholden to no one with my artwork. I can do anything I want to, go anywhere I want to-the limitations of my life reside between my two ears.

Last night my husband and I went to a real estate seminar. Now I'm a skeptic's skeptic when it comes to such things, but I had to admit I heard alot of wisdom. And the speaker was impressive-two and a half hours of presentation and nary a break for anyone, least of all the guy giving the information out. But the main point of the presentation in my mind was that the information was only useful to those who would actually go out and DO something with it. You could buy all the books and tapes you wanted to, hear all the information you wanted to, and never derive a single penny of benefit if you don't believe enough to even TRY to do something.

This reminds me of a very familiar story about three people entrusted with the wealth of the master of an estate who would return someday to claim it. The one entrusted with the most invested it and doubled his investment. Likewise the second individual entrusted with a lesser amount and also doubled the investment. The third person was given the least amount, and out of a fear of losing all they did nothing with what was given to them but hide it in the ground. When the master returned he praised the two who doubled their investment but took away from the third person what little they did keep. The difference between the two who made money and the one who did not was what they did.